SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The game couldn't have started much better for the Chicago Bears after getting a pick-6 on the first play.
The ending couldn't have been much more crushing with a potential game-winning pass from the 2-yard line falling short as the Bears couldn't complete a record seventh late-game comeback.
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Chicago Bears' Colston Loveland celebrates his touchdown catch with Kyle Monangai during the first half of an NFL football game the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Chicago Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards (53) is congratulated by teammates after returning an interception for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams passes against the San Francisco 49ers during the second half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard)
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) passes while pressured by San Francisco 49ers defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos (94) on the final play of the second half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
Caleb Williams missed on a last-ditch pass to Jahdae Walker in the end zone Sunday night, sending the Bears to a 42-38 loss to the San Francisco 49ers that cost them a chance to earn the top seed in the NFC playoffs.
“It’s frustrating,” Williams said. “You don’t want to lose a game ever. And then also, in that position, having a shot at the end is all you can ask for on this moment. But we’ve got to do better job overall.”
Williams and the Bears (11-5) had been at their best in those types of late-game situations with an NFL record six wins when trailing in the final two minutes of regulation, including a comeback win last week against the Green Bay Packers.
Williams moved Chicago 63 yards in 2:11, converting a fourth-and-5 and then getting the ball to the 2 with a hook-and-ladder pass to Colston Loveland, who lateraled to D'Andre Swift.
After a spike to stop the clock, the Bears struggled to line up properly on the final play. Williams was then flushed out of the pocket by Bryce Huff and his throw to the end zone short-hopped Walker.
“We just had to try to make something out of nothing in that situation and then, like I said, we had a shot,” Williams said. “With all that going on, time winding down, we had a shot. I just have to give my guys a shot in that situation. I ended up dirting the ball, didn’t get my legs into it. Just put the ball in the end zone in that situation. I can’t dirt the ball.”
The loss ends the Bears’ hopes of earning the top seed and a first-round bye. Chicago has already clinched the NFC North and can earn the No. 2 seed by beating Detroit next Sunday or if Philadelphia loses to Washington.
Williams threw for 330 yards and two touchdowns, Swift ran for two scores, rookies Luther Burden and Loveland combined for 14 catches for 232 yards and two touchdowns and T.J. Edwards scored on a 34-yard pick-6 on the first play from scrimmage.
But the defense struggled to get any stops, allowing Brock Purdy and the 49ers to score six touchdowns in the third game this season that Chicago has allowed at least 42 points.
For a franchise built on a history of stout defenses and inconsistent offenses, the manner in which the Bears lost was especially stunning. They became the second team in the Super Bowl era to lose a game in the regular season or playoffs when they scored at least 35 points, got a defensive touchdown and didn't turn the ball over.
Teams had been 286-1 in that scenario with the only other team to lose being Denver in a 41-36 loss to the St. Louis Rams in the 2000 season opener.
“When you go against a dynamic offense like that, you talk about the possibilities as an offense of going tit-for-tat with them, and at times we may answer that call,” coach Ben Johnson said. “They just ended up making more plays than us.”
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Chicago Bears' Colston Loveland celebrates his touchdown catch with Kyle Monangai during the first half of an NFL football game the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Chicago Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards (53) is congratulated by teammates after returning an interception for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams passes against the San Francisco 49ers during the second half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard)
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) passes while pressured by San Francisco 49ers defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos (94) on the final play of the second half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization sought Saturday to reassure residents of the Spanish island where passengers of a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship are expected to be evacuated, issuing them a direct message that the virus was “not another COVID.”
The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, with more than 140 passengers and crew on board, is headed to Spain's Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, and is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife early Sunday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, were due on the island Saturday to coordinate the disembarkation of passengers and some crew.
“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment,” Tedros said in a message to the people of Tenerife.
“But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” Tedros added.
The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said nobody on the Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus.
Hantavirus can cause life-threatening illness. It usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus.
Some on Tenerife say they are worried. On board the cruise ship, some Spanish passengers have voiced concern about being stigmatized.
“I tell you, I don’t like this very much,” said 69-year-old resident Simon Vidal. “Anyone can say what they want. Why did they have to bring a boat from another country here? Why not anywhere else, why bring it to the Canary Islands?”
Others said they empathized with the boat's passengers, but were still concerned.
“The truth is that it is very worrying,” said 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Samantha Aguero. She added: “We feel a bit unsafe, we don’t feel as there are 100% security measures in place to welcome it. This is a virus after all and we have lived this during the pandemic. But we also need to have empathy.”
Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife “under maximum safety conditions.”
The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms and won't be taken off the ship until a flight is already in Tenerife waiting to fly them off the island, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens. Americans are to be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.
All Spanish passengers will be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, Garcia said. Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.
Those disembarking will leave behind their luggage, Garcia said, and will be allowed to take only a small bag with essential items, a cellphone, charger and documentation.
Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to the Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.
According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for infections diseases to be on standby in case anyone on the ship becomes ill. That person would then be transported by air to the European mainland.
The Dutch government will work with Spanish authorities and the ship company to arrange repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the letter said. Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services.
As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine, it said.
Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.
On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, Dutch officials and the ship’s operator have said.
It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger.
Dutch public health authorities have been monitoring people who were on a flight that was briefly boarded by a Dutch ship passenger who later died and was confirmed to have hantavirus. Three people who were on the flight and had symptoms have all tested negative for hantavirus, Dutch National Institute for Public Health spokesperson Harald Wychgel told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Becatoros reported from Sparta, Greece. Associated Press reporters Angela Charlton in Paris and Helena Alves in Tenerife contributed to this report.
A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Media crew members stand in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Passengers on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, scan the horizon with binoculars during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger checks his camera inside his cabin on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
A passenger on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, takes a photo of the ship's weighing anchor in Praia, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)
